votees
have each a cloth with a small quantity of rice, barley, or money, which
they give to these old men when they have washed. They then go to one or
other of the idols, where they present their sacrifices. When they have
finished their washings oblations and charities, the old men say certain
prayers by which they are all sanctified.

In divers places there stand a kind of images, called _Ada_ in their
language, having four hands with claws; and they have sundry carved
stones on which they pour water, and lay thereon some rice, wheat,
barley and other things. Likewise they have a great place built of
stone, like a well, with steps to go down, in which the water is very
foul and stinking, through the great quantity of flowers which are
continually thrown into the water: Yet there are always many people in
that water, for they say that it purifies them from their sins, because,
as they allege, God washed himself in that place. They even gather up
the sand or mud from the bottom, which they esteem holy. They never pray
but in the water, in which they wash themselves over head, laving up the
water in both hands, and turning themselves about, they drink a little
of the water three times, and then go to the idols which stand in the
houses already mentioned. Some take of the water, with which they wash a
place of their own length, and then lie down stretched out, rising and
lying down, and kissing the ground twenty or thirty times, yet keeping
their right foot all the time in the same place. Some make their
ceremonies with fifteen or sixteen pots, little and great, ringing a
little bell when they make their mixtures, ten or twelve times. They
make a circle of water round about their pots and pray, divers sitting
by them, and one in particular who reaches the pots to them; and they
say certain words many times over the pots, and when they have done,
they go to their idols, before which they strew their sacrifices, which
they think very holy, and mark many of those who sit by in the
foreheads, which they esteem highly. There sometimes come fifty or even
an hundred together, to wash at this well, and to sacrifice to these
idols.

In some of these idol houses, there are people who stand by them in warm
weather, fanning them as if to cool them; and when they see any company
coming, they ring a little bell which hangs beside them, when many give
them alms, particularly those who come out of the country. Many of these
idols are